Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Index/Chapter 9

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Claims made in "Chapter 8: Big Trouble In Little Missouri"

A FAIR Analysis of: One Nation Under Gods A work by author: Richard Abanes Index of claims: Claims made in "Chapter 9: March to Martyrdom"

Claims made in "Chapter 10: A New Beginning"

Note: This is a review of claims and/or responses to misrepresentations of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints found in this work. The inclusion of an author's work here does not imply that he or she is "anti-Mormon," or that none of his or her works have value. Those who do not wish to examine the claims contained in what some would consider an "anti-Mormon" work are advised to proceed no further.

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Claims made in "Chapter 9: March to Martyrdom"

...intellectual reasoning and logical thought never had played more than a minor role in their belief system.
—One Nation Under Gods, p. 172

∗       ∗       ∗

Claim

• Hardback edition:

"I combat the errors of the ages;...I solve mathematical problems of universities, with truth—diamond truth; and God is my 'right hand man.'...[God] will make me be God to you in his stead,...and if you don't like it, you must lump it....I have more to boast of than ever any man had....I boast that no man ever did such a work as I."
Joseph Smith
History of the Church, 1844

• Paperback edition:

"I combat the errors of the ages;...I solve mathematical problems of universities, with truth—diamond truth; and God is my "right hand man" [1843]. God made Aaron to be the mouth piece for the children of Israel, and He will make me be god to you in His stead [1844]. I have more to boast of than ever any man had....I boast that no man ever did such a work as I [1844]."
Joseph Smith
History of the Church

Author's source(s)

• History of The Church, 6:78, 319-320, 408-409. 319-320, 408-409 BYU Studies link

Response

• Note the corrections made between the hardback and the paperback. This was originally presented as a single quote.
•  Misrepresentation of source: Use of sources: Joseph Smith's Narcissism
• Joseph used these phrases in a letter, responding humorously to something his correspondent said.
• Did Joseph Smith 'boast' of keeping the Church intact?

Claim

•  Author's quote:"...for Joseph, his followers were more than willing to accept any excuse he might give them...intellectual reasoning and logical thought never had played more than a minor role in their belief system."

Author's source(s)

• N/A

Response

• Loaded and prejudicial language
• Mind reading

Claim

• Did Joseph set himself up as "Zion's dictator" in Christ's place until His second coming?

Author's source(s)

• N/A

Response

• Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

• Did Brigham Young actually say that Joseph Smith's character "was easily on par with Jesus Christ's?"

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young, (August 13, 1871) Journal of Discourses 14:203.

Response

•  The claim is false: Use of sources: Joseph on a par with Jesus Christ?

Claim

• Is Joseph Smith considered as important to Latter-day Saints' spirituality as Jesus Christ?"
• Did Levi Edgar Young say that the "grandeur of Joseph Smith's life" was "the all-important truth that the world needed to hear" and that "thousands would turn not to God, but to Joseph."

Author's source(s)

• 21. Levi Edgar Young, letter dated April 14, 1961. Quoted in Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Mormonism—Shadow or Reality?, 5th edition, (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 1987), 252.

Response

•  The claim is false: Under no circumstances would Latter-day Saints be encouraged to "turn not to God, but to Joseph." This is a highly pejorative and offensive statement.
• Loaded and prejudicial language
• Absurd claims
• Use of sources: Thou Shalt Not Raise a False Report

Claim

• Did Brigham Young "twist" John 4:3 in order to apply it to Joseph?

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 8:176..

Response

• Brigham Young applied 1 John 4:3 to Joseph Smith
• This claim is also made in Becoming Gods, p. 28

Claim

• Did Joseph suffer from narcissism?

Author's source(s)

• Robert D. Anderson, Inside the Mind of Joseph Smith: Psychobiography and the Book of Mormon, xxxix, 222-242.

Response

• Loaded and prejudicial language
• Joseph Smith/Psychobiographical analysis of

Claim

• Why did Hezekiah McKune, Sophia Lewis and Levi Lewis state that Joseph claimed that he was "nearly equal to" or "as good as" Jesus Christ.

Author's source(s)

• Eber D. Howe, Mormonism Unvailed (Painesville, OH, 1834), 268-269. (Affidavits examined)

Response

• Interestingly enough, Hezekiah M'Kune, Levi Lewis and Sophia Lewis went together to make their depositions before the justice. Their testimonies bear a remarkable similarity and contain the unique claim that Joseph claimed to be "as good as Jesus Christ." This claim is not related by any other individuals who knew the Prophet, suggesting that these three individuals planned and coordinated their story before giving their depositions. ^[1]
• The Hurlbut affidavits—Hezekiah M'Kune
• The Hurlbut affidavits—Sophia Lewis
• The Hurlbut affidavits—Levi Lewis

Claim

• Why did Joseph Smith state: "I am the only man that has been able to keep the whole church together....Neither Paul, John, Peter, nor Jesus ever did it?"

Author's source(s)

• History of The Church, 6:408-409. BYU Studies link

Response

• Did Joseph Smith 'boast' of keeping the Church intact?
• Use of sources: Joseph's "Grandiose Sense of Self Importance"

Claim

• Was Joseph boasting of violence when he claimed: "I wrestled with William Wall, the most expert wrestler in Ramus, and threw him?"

Author's source(s)

• History of The Church, 5:302. BYU Studies link

Response

• Use of sources: The Wrestling Prophet

Claim

• Did Joseph boast of his fighting skill and his strength when he said: "I feel as strong as a giant....I pulled up with one hand the strongest man that could be found. Then two men tried, but they could not pull me up."

Author's source(s)

• History of the Church, vol. 5, 466.

Response

• Use of sources: America's Fighting Prophet

Claim

• Did Jedediah Grant say that Joseph hit a Baptist preacher and and then throw him to the ground so violently that he "whirled round a few times, like a duck shot in the head?"

Author's source(s)

• Jedediah M. Grant, (September 24, 1854) Journal of Discourses 3:67.

Response

•  The claim is false: Use of sources: Joseph hit a baptist preacher
•  Misrepresentation of source: Note that Joseph challenged the preacher to a wrestling match, which shocked the sanctimonious man—the "duck shot in the head" does not describe the result of a blow, but is a colorful simile describing how shocked the preacher was at Joseph's remark.

Claim

• Were the commissioned officers in the Nauvoo Legion were granted "law-making powers?"

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• The author's source is unclear. Some officers in the Legion were also civic lawmakers (e.g., mayor, councilors, alderman, etc.) but it is not clear what lawmaking powers the author is claiming for militia officers as such.

Claim

• Was the Nauvoo Legion simply a "resurrection" of the Danites?

Author's source(s)

• Hosea Stout, On the Mormon Frontier: The Diary of Hosea Stout, Juanita Brooks, ed., vol. 1, 140-141, 197, 259.

Response

• In what ways? In what ways were they different?
• The militia was organized with the sanction of the Illinois legislature, the state supplied arms, and its officers received commissions from the state.^[2]

Claim
 Author's quote:"Where were all those rights enumerated in the Declaration of Independence?"

Author's source(s)

• None

Response

•  History unclear or in error: One would assume that the author probably meant to say the "Constitution" or the "Bill of Rights."

Claim

• Did Joseph set up a "shadow-government" called the "Council of Fifty" for the purpose of organizing the "political kingdom of God in preparation for the second coming of Christ?"

Author's source(s)

• Woodruff, in Kenny, under March 11, 1844, vol. 2, 366.

Response

• Council of Fifty

Claim

• Did the Council of Fifty ordain Joseph to be "King and Ruler over Israel?"

Author's source(s)

• John Taylor, "A Revelation on the Kingdom of God in the Last Days given through President John Taylor at Salt Lake City," June 27, 1882, reprinted in Fred C. Coliier, ed., Unpublished Revelations, vol. 1, 133.

Response

• Council of Fifty

Claim

• Did Latter-day Saints believe that "the only acceptable government" would have to be in the form of a global theocracy?
• Didn't Joseph say "It has been the design of Jehovah, from the commencement of the world, and is his purpose now, to regulate the affairs of the world...to stand as head of the universe, and take the reigns of government into his own hands?"

Author's source(s)

• Joseph Smith, "The Government of God," Times and Seasons 3 no. 18 (July 15, 1842), 856-857. off-site GospeLink (requires subscrip.)

Response

• The Council of Fifty

Claim

• Was Josephs crowned "king of the world?"

Author's source(s)

•  ^{[needs work]}

Response

• Council of Fifty
• Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

• Did Joseph send Orrin Porter Rockwell to kill ex-Governor Boggs?

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• Joseph denied the charge (History of the Church 5:15).
• Rockwell was tried in Missouri and acquitted.^[3]
• Monte B. McLaws, "The Attempted Assassination of Missouri's Ex-Governor, Lilburn W. Boggs," Missouri Historical Review LX (October 1965), 50-62 examined the evidence and found it insufficient to assign blame to anyone.
• This is the fallacy of probability

Claim

• Does D&C 98:31 justify the murder of personal enemies?

Author's source(s)

• DC 98:31

Response

•  The claim is false: Use of sources: D&C 98:31 justifies murder

Claim

• Did Porter Rockwell admit that he had tried to kill Boggs?

Author's source(s)

• Orrin Porter Rockwell. Quoted in Harold Schindler, Orrin Porter Rockwell, Man of God, Son of Thunder, 80.
• Richard S. Van Wagoner and Steven C. Walker, A Book of Mormons, 250.

Response

• Use of sources: Orrin P. Rockwell admitting to shooting Boggs?

Claim

• Did Joseph Smith escape both times after he was arrested twice for his alleged role in Boggs' assasination attempt?

Author's source(s)

• Hallwas and Launius, Cultures in Conflict, 88-89.

Response

•  History unclear or in error
• In the first instance, Joseph was arrested by Missourians, and then released since he had been served an illegal warrant— it charged that he had fled Missouri after committing the crime, an impossibility.^[4]
• In the second case, Joseph submitted to arrest and the governor, a probate judge, the U.S. District Attorney for Illinois, and the Illinois Supreme Court found that the arrest warrant from Missouri was illegal.^[5]
• Joseph "escaped" through due process of law; in both cases the warrant was illegal; in the second case, it was so declared by the governor and state supreme court.
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

•  Author's quote:"Not until 1841 in Nauvoo...was Smith's seemingly insatiable lust for women and young girls unleashed."

Author's source(s)

• Author's opinion.

Response

• Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

• Did Joseph Smith advocate the practice of polyandry?

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• Polyandry

Claim

•  Author's quote:"[T]he wives continued to live with their husbands after marrying Smith, but would have conjugal visits from Joseph whenever it served his needs."

Author's source(s)

• No source provided. Author's opinion.

Response

•  The claim is false: The author is challenged to provide a primary source documenting this claim.
• Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

• Were Heber and his wife Vilate Kimball "too devoted" to each other for Joseph Smith's taste?

Author's source(s)

• Orson Whitney, Life of Heber C. Kimball, 93-94.
• Todd Compton, In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997), 495. ( Index of claims )

Response

• Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

• Did Joseph violate a Biblical prohibition on marrying a mother and daughter or two sisters?

Author's source(s)

• Leviticus 18:17-18

Response

• The author cannot make up his mind. First, he tells us that there is no Biblical approval or command to practice plural marriage (see p. 305, (PB)). This claim is false, since levirate marriage is commanded by the Bible (Deuteronomy 25:5-6), and laws are given about the proper care of plural wives (Deuteronomy 21:15-17).
• Now, the author wishes to make Joseph bound by the marital codes of the Law of Moses. There are many other Law of Moses principles which Joseph did not keep either—but, neither does the author. A key tenet of Christianity is that the Law of Moses is no longer binding (e.g., Acts 15:20,29).
• Joseph did not claim to practice plural marriage under biblical authority (Old Testament or otherwise), but on the basis of new revelation. He and his followers used the Old Testament as evidence that God did not always forbid plural marriage, but this is a different matter from believing they were re-enacting the Law of Moses' polygamy on the Bible's authority alone.

Claim

• Did Joseph denounce polygamy as sinful and state that "monogamy was God's perfect design?"

Author's source(s)

• Times and Seasons, March 15, 1843, vol. 4, no. 9, 143.

Response

•  Misrepresentation of source: The cited source says nothing about polygamy being "sinful" or stating the "monogamy was God's perfect design for marital relationships."
• The citation included by the author is a portion of a reprint in the T&S of a letter to the editor written by someone with the initials "H.R." and submitted to the Boston Bee:

We are charged with advocating a plurality of wives, and common property. Now this is as false as the many other ridiculous charges which are brought against us. No sect have a greater reverence for the laws of matrimony, or the rights of private property, and we do what others do not, practice what we preach.

Claim

•  Author's quote:"Apostates...preached against the evils thriving in Joseph's city of debauchery and despotism."

Author's source(s)

• History of The Church, 6:363. BYU Studies link

Response

•  Misrepresentation of source: Use of sources: Debauchery and despotism at Nauvoo
• Nauvoo Expositor Full Text
• Loaded and prejudicial language

Claim

• Did Joseph destroy the Nauvoo Expositor because his "entire plan to rule the world" was about to be exposed?

Author's source(s)

• Clayton, see Robert C. Fillerup, under June 22, 1844, in "Nauvoo Temple History Journal, William Clayton, 1845,".
• Andrew F. Ehat, "'It Seems Like Heaven Began On Earth': Joseph Smith and the Constitution of the Kingdom of God," Brigham Young University Studies 20 (Spring 1980), 268.

Response

• Absurd claims

Claim

• The Nauvoo Expositor told of women who "under penalty of death," were told that they were to be sealed to him as "spiritual wives."

Author's source(s)

• Nauvoo Expositor, 2

Response

• Nauvoo Expositor
• Primary sources/Nauvoo Expositor Full Text

Claim

• Did Joseph decide not to flee to Iowa because of 1) guilt for leaving, 2) he wouldn't be safe in Iowa, 3) there was no leadership left in Nauvoo and 4) the Nauvoo Legion was divided?

Author's source(s)

• No sources provided.

Response

•  History unclear or in error: The book does not acknowledge contemporary records of what was done and said to influence Joseph's return to Nauvoo, and what he himself said about it:
  • Notable Omission: Joseph's attitude in Iowa before Carthage
  • Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Mind reading
• Here is Fawn Brodie's opinion:

"But the river was only one factor in Joseph's gloom. He was landing in Iowa, where there was still a price on his head. The Governor of the Iowa Territory had never agreed not to extradite him to Missouri on the old charge of treason. Moreover, Joseph had neither equipment nor appetite for the lonely and savage western trails. And he could not stifle a sense of guilt at deserting his people..." (Brodie, No Man Knows My History p. 384)

Claim

• Since Joseph wrote to Emma and said that he was "much resigned to my lot," why did he write a note to Jonathan Dunham telling him to bring the Nauvoo Legion and "break the jail, and save him at all costs?"

Author's source(s)

• Joseph Smith, letter to Emma, June 27, 1844. Quoted in Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 391. ( Index of claims )
• Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 392. ( Index of claims )

Response

• Nauvoo Legion to rescue Joseph?

Claim

• Is it true that Dunham never brought the Nauvoo Legion because "[p]erhaps he was secretly dissatisfied with Smith's leadership?"

Author's source(s)

• No source provided.

Response

• Dunham later expressed guilt because he believed that had he finished the fortification of Nauvoo in time, Joseph would not have gone to Carthage.
• The entire claim about Dunham is extremely questionable.
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Mind reading

Claim

• Is it true, as Brodie claims, that nobody in Nauvoo other than Jonathan Dunham "knew of the prophet's peril?"

Author's source(s)

• Fawn M. Brodie, No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1945), 392. ( Index of claims )

Response

• The entire claim about Dunham is extremely questionable.
• Everyone in Nauvoo knew the risk to Joseph—but they were ordered to stay home and stay calm, for fear of mob action against the whole city.
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Absurd claims

Claim

• There is no mention of the fact that the Carthage Greys, who were supposed to be guarding the prisoners, allowed the mob entry.

Author's source(s)

• No citation provided.

Response

• Notable omissions

Claim

• Is it true that Joseph had been "smuggled a six-shooter?"

Author's source(s)

• No citation provided.

Response

• The book here again seems to follow Brodie's wording without attribution: "Joseph had a six-shooter...which had been smuggled in by friends...." (Brodie, 393).
• Criticism of Mormonism/Books/One Nation Under Gods/Rewording_secondary_sources

Endnotes

1. [note] Hugh W. Nibley, Tinkling Cymbals and Sounding Brass: The Art of Telling Tales About Joseph Smith and Brigham Young (Vol. 11 of the Collected Works of Hugh Nibley), edited by David J. Whittaker, (Salt Lake City, Utah : Deseret Book Company ; Provo, Utah : Foundation for Ancient Research and Mormon Studies, 1991), 128. ISBN 0875795161. GospeLink (requires subscrip.)
2. [note]  James B. Allen and Glen M. Leonard, Story of the Latter-day Saints, 2nd edition revised and enlarged, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company, 1992[1976]), 168–169. ISBN 087579565X. GospeLink (requires subscrip.)
3. [note]  Richard L. Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (New York: Knopf, 2005), 468–469.
4. [note]  See: Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 5:86–87. BYU Studies link Brigham H. Roberts, Comprehensive History of the Church (Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1965), 2:150. GospeLink (requires subscrip.) Edwin Brown Firmage and Richard Collin Mangrum, Zion in the Courts : a Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 97. ISBN 0252069803.
5. [note]  See: Joseph Smith, History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 7 volumes, edited by Brigham H. Roberts, (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 1957), 5:179, 205–231. 205–231 BYU Studies link Edwin Brown Firmage and Richard Collin Mangrum, Zion in the Courts : a Legal History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830–1900 (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1988), 100. ISBN 0252069803.

Further reading

A FAIR Analysis of Critical Works

• American Massacre: The Tragedy at Mountain Meadows— (Index of claims)
• An Insider's View of Mormon Origins — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Archaeology and the Book of Mormon
• Ashamed of Joseph: Mormon Foundations Crumble
• Becoming Gods: A Closer Look at 21st-Century Mormonism/Inside Today's Mormonism — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Behind the Mask of Mormonism
• Specific works/Blood of the Prophets: Brigham Young and the Massacre at Mountain Meadows
• Specific works/By His Own Hand Upon Papyrus
• Counterfeit Gospel of Mormonism
• Covering Up the Black Hole in the Book of Mormon
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 1
  • Answering Mormon Scholars, Vol. 2
• Decker's Complete Handbook on Mormonism
• Early Mormonism and the Magic World View — (Index of claims—Use of sources)
• Specific works/Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Mormonism
• Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History
• From Captain Kidd's Treasure Ghost to the Angel Moroni: Changing Dramatis Personae in Early Mormonism
• In Sacred Loneliness: The Plural Wives of Joseph Smith — (Index of Claims)
• Indian Origins and the Book of Mormon
• Inventing Mormonism: Tradition and the Historical Record
• Is the Mormon My Brother?
• Joseph Smith: The Making of a Prophet
• Joseph Smith and the Origins of The Book of Mormon (2nd edition)—(Index of claims)
• Joseph Smith's New York Reputation Reexamined
• The Kingdom of the Cults (Revised) — (Index of claims)
• Leaving the Saints
• Letters to a Mormon Elder
• Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church — (Index of claims)
• Mormon America: The Power and the Promise — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power — (Index of claims)
• The Mormon Mirage: Seeing Through the Illusion of Mainstream Mormonism
• Mormonism 101—Index of claims
• Mormonism (Kurt Van Gorden)
• Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? — (Index of claims)
• The Mysteries of Godliness—A History of Mormon Temple Worship
• Nauvoo Polygamy — (Index of claims—Use of sources—Prejudicial language—Presentism—Mind reading—Censorship—Romance—Assumptions—Magick)
• New Approaches to the Book of Mormon
• New Mormon Challenge
• No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith — (Index of claims)
• One Nation Under Gods — (Index of claims—Use of Sources—Prejudicial language—Absurd claims—Presentism—Mind reading—Rewording—Omissions—Sarcasm)
• The Refiner's Fire: The Making of Mormon Cosmology, 1644–1844
• Same-Sex Dynamics Among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A Mormon Example — (Index of claims)
• Sidney Rigdon: A Portrait of Religious Excess
• The Changing World of Mormonism — (Index of claims)
• Trouble Enough: Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon
• Under the Banner of Heaven — (Index of claims)
• Word of God: Essays on Mormon Scripture